Flowerhorn Battling Ich

This morning I woke up with my flowerhorn had ich. I don't know what caused it. But he has it. Could it be caused from a stressed pleco that is tanked with him? I jus got him last Friday and been doing great since. Right now doing a water change to get all debris from bottom of tank. My tank sat round 83 degrees gonna bring it up higher after water change. Should I put something in there to help with the ich or just keep high temp and tank clean? The more advice the better please help

 

If you want to treat the ich using heat you need to slowly raise the tank temp to 86 degrees and leave it there for two weeks. You will also need to vacuum the gravel daily to try and remove the ich spores that drop off the fish and settle in the substrate. Some people will recommend also using salt, which is not necessary and you definitely should not use salt since your pleco will not tolerate it. You will also want to make sure your tank is well aerated since warmer water holds less oxygen,

If you chose to use a medication, keep your tank at it's normal temp while treating, but do not forget to remove the carbon from your filter.

Best of luck!

 

Okay sounds good. Bringing the temp up now. As of right now I haven't been using carbon for about a week. Just bio-rings. Other than the daily debris gravel cleaning. Should I just stick to the weekly water changes again or should I do small partial 10%-20%, every couple days. My nitrites are at about .1 and nitrates are 50ppm. Dontio understand why they keep climbing? Even after water changes. There is like no debris at bottom of tank as of poop or uneaten food. Filters are clean. Is 2 airstones enough to keep tank aerated? Here is a pic of tank

Okay sounds good. Bringing the temp up now. As of right now I haven't been using carbon for about a week. Just bio-rings. Other than the daily debris gravel cleaning. Should I just stick to the weekly water changes again or should I do small partial 10%-20%, every couple days. My nitrites are at about .1 and nitrates are 50ppm. Dontio understand why they keep climbing? Even after water changes. There is like no debris at bottom of tank as of poop or uneaten food. Filters are clean. Is 2 airstones enough to keep tank aerated? Here is a pic of tank

My PH stays steady around 7.8

 

I'm a little confused, if your vacuuming the gravel, aren't you also removing water? But yes, if you have elevated nitrites (which could have cause the stress which brought on the ich) you should be doing daily partial water changes with Prime.

Ya know...I was a member here for a pretty long time before I finally realized a Flowerhorn was a fish and not a plant.

 

Yes when I vacuum gravel I do take water out ha. But not as much as a partial water change as cleaning the gravel doesn't take as long but I did a 50% and cleaned gravel this morning. And I will keep an eye on the parameters and do partials daily to keep the rites down.

Should I continuing his feedings? Cut back to once a day? What a day or two before feeding? Or does it matter?

So here are my tap water readings.
Ph is 7.8
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20
GH 80ppm
KH 50ppn
Ammonia is .08

I'm concerned my tap water has to much ammonia in it? Could this be a problem. I'm gonna put prime in it and see how low it goes. Maybe I'll need to treat the tank more during water changes. Let me know what you guys think

 

Prime or Stress coat will take the ammonia down to "non dangerous levels" up to a certain period of time...I think it's 24-48 hours. But if your tank is well established it should take that remaining ammonia and push it to a 0.

You can still feed your fish if you want to.

 

My tank is going on 4 weeks now. Could it still be dealing with cycling?

 

Probably. Normally most people here advise that it takes at least 4 weeks for a tank to be ready but it can take much longer.

 

Probably. Normally most people here advise that it takes at least 4 weeks for a tank to be ready but it can take much longer.

You think that will do a lot of damage to the flowerhorn? Would he be okay? Anything I can do other than small water changes and keep bottom of tank clean and keep temp high?

 

Flowerhorns are pretty hardy fish. I would keep monitoring your parameters.

In the mean time deal with the ich...change about 50% of the water each day for the next two weeks as mentioned previously. The daily water change will keep your parameters in check. Once the ich is gone you should monitor the tank for the next few weeks until you read 0,0 and about 5-20 for NitrAte.

 

Flowerhorns are pretty hardy fish. I would keep monitoring your parameters.

In the mean time deal with the ich...change about 50% of the water each day for the next two weeks as mentioned previously. The daily water change will keep your parameters in check. Once the ich is gone you should monitor the tank for the next few weeks until you read 0,0 and about 5-20 for NitrAte.

Okay thanks for the advice

 

I'm concerned my tap water has to much ammonia in it? Could this be a problem. I'm gonna put prime in it and see how low it goes. Maybe I'll need to treat the tank more during water changes. Let me know what you guys think

Just to make this clear. Your test will still register the ammonia and nitrite if they are there even while adding prime. Prime just renders it less harmful for your fish. I know some folks have been confused about that and couldn't figure out why their test was still showing ammonia after adding Prime.

 

So I'm assuming I'll battle this for a few more weeks? So as long as I keep up the water changes and the heat should be okay?

 

You'll want to strive to keep your ammonia and/or nitrites under 1ppm and also use Prime as your water conditioner. A standard dose of Prime will detox up to 1ppm of ammonia and/or nitrites for 24 hours. So just make sure your water changes are large enough that just before your next water change ammonia/nitrite is still under 1ppm and your fish will be safe.

Cycling (without a bacteria additive) usually takes about 6 weeks. Since you'll be doing water changes everyday due to the ich treatment you may be cycled just about the time the ich treatment is done. But you could use SeaChem Stability to help speed the cycling process up, since with Stability you can perform daily water changes and use Prime.

 

So Martin my flowerhorn has had ich since Monday. Been treating it with high temp around 88 and daily water changes. Also my tank is about 4.5 weeks so I believing I'm still battling cycling due to the nitrite won't drop under .5ppm. Since I been running high temp and have more oxygen in tank (lowered tank level to create splash from 2 filters and 2 air stones going. Could this drop my PH to low to cause damage to martin?

 

I wouldn't think so, but keep an eye on your pH level just in case.

 

I wouldn't think so, but keep an eye on your pH level just in case.

Well my ph is usually around 7.5. And when I checked it today it was more close to 7.0. So at what level should I be concerned and how do I raise it if so

 

Well my ph is usually around 7.5. And when I checked it today it was more close to 7.0. So at what level should I be concerned and how do I raise it if so

Break down of nitrites I believe can slowly lower ph but 4.5 weeks seems very fast if that's the case.

You may not have much buffer to your water making it easier to fluctuate your ph

Are you medicating for the ich I can't recall from your original post. If so that may be a factor as well?

Personally at this point I would just monitor it. Martin is already stressed which is why he more than likely caught ich. To many more stresses might be to much.

However if it lowers more I would do a water change/vacuum lightly to take care of the nitrites, remove ich, and then see what the ph was. I would then attempt to keep it stable till Martin is less stressed and then if needed raise or lower it very slowly over a stretch of time. Most people say it's just best to be consistant with your ph and I agree with that statement.

If your water is lacking buffer you can add some crushed Coral or similar material to help add some buffer.

If you can post your medication being used if any and your tanks actual water parameters including your kh and gh if possible someone may be able to give you some more advice.

 

I'm not medicating just high temp and water changes and light vacuuming. The following parameters are from today other than KH and GH have not tested that in about 2 days so those results are few days old.
Temp. 88
Ammonia .3
Nitrates 20-30
Nitrites 1.0
PH 7.0
KH 50
GH 100

Normally my PH is around 7.6-7.8 before in starting treating Martin's ich. Also my nitrites are usually between .25-.5 so this is also the highest it's been. And ammonia is at its lowest usually been testing around 1.2

 

Well my ph is usually around 7.5. And when I checked it today it was more close to 7.0. So at what level should I be concerned and how do I raise it if so

I would say if it drops below 7.0, you'll want to raise your pH a little. But since the heat treatment only lasts 14 days, you shouldn't have to worry about it too much and I would think your pH would go back to normal if it is indeed the added surface agitation that is lowering it.

 

I would say if it drops below 7.0, you'll want to raise your pH a little. But since the heat treatment only lasts 14 days, you shouldn't have to worry about it too much and I would think your pH would go back to normal if it is indeed the added surface agitation that is lowering it.

Okay sounds good I'll keep monitoring it

So as title. I been treating ich with my flowerhorn on day 5 now. Yesterday they were all pretty much off of him as daily I been continuing the water changes and light vacuuming. Keeping temp steady at 88degrees. Today I noticed he is starting to get them again. Obviously I'm gonna continue to treat up to 14 days but is this to be a concern is he stressed enough to start another break out. He seems fine otherwise he has been more aggressive to the point where I have to net him to vacuuming bottom of tank cause he continuously attacks my hand the second it hits the water. It's funny cause he climbs right in the net so it makes it easy but he also sits at top of tank a lot acting like he wants or is getting food. I feed him twice a day so I don't get why he acts hungry 24/7 maybe someone can chime in if there is any issue at all I should be concerned about or not. In all my years I've never really had sick fish so kinda new

 

Threads have been merged to keep all the information in one place & members can see what’s already been advised.

 

I've never treated ich with the heat method, but from what I understand the ich will get worse before it gets better. The heat speeds up the lifecycle of the ich , and I believe at temps above 86 degrees, the spores in the gravel will die. So I would venture a guess that what you are seeing now is ich that the fish already had, but just hadn't matured enough to be visable as white spots.

 

Monday he had the outbreak showing white spots on Monday. They disappeared Thursday night. This morning more showed up

 

I think the fish actually has ich before the spots show up. So what I was trying to say is that initially you saw ich spots (ich organisms that matured to the point where the spots were visible). But the fish may have had additional ich organisms that were not mature enough to become white spots. By raising the tank temp, those not yet mature ich organisms have had their lifecycle sped up and are now in the white spot phase.

From what I understand ich is a parasite. After it grows it becomes a spore (this is how it reproduces) and comes to the surface like a pimple (the white spot) that pimple then breaks and the ich spore drops into the substrate. The spore than hatches and the parasite attaches to the fish and the cycle continues.

 

Ya that makes complete sense. Helps me a lot to understand so I appreciate you taking the time to help me understand. I feel like I'm getting to the end of it which is good cause I been worried about this guy ha.

 

So did my daily water change today around 1pm. Just tested my nitrites and they are reading 5.0. Why did it climb so high over 24hrs when yesterday it was at 1.0?

 

Wow, apparently a lot of ammonia got converted into nitrites over the past 24 hours. But get those nitrites down, since they interfere with fishes ability to extract oxygen from the water. The fish can actually suffocate if the nitrites are high. Somehow, aquarium salt will help them extract oxygen from the water when nitrites are high, but you need to be doing water changes anyway so I would just some water changes to get those nitrites under 1ppm.

 

I won't be able to do next water change until the morning. Could that do to much damage to him over night?

 

Well...maybe. 5ppm is pretty high.

 

So here's an update. It's been 7days since Martin has gotten ich. I been treating by running tank at 88degrees. The nitrites wouldnt drop so I took my drift wood out so I could make sure I could clean the entire bottom free of the ich that fall off. Did that yesterday as well as I start putting aquarium salt as I read it kills it in it's free floating stage. Ich went almost away after 4 days but yesterday morning it has triple worse then when he first started. He is still active and wants to eat. It bothers him as it tries to ich himself once in a while. I just don't know if the heat treatment is working and if I should just medicate him? And if I do so do I bring the temp back down to his 85-86 temp I want him at and stop with the salt?

 

I would say if you are going to use meds, definitely bring the tank temp back to normal (apparently meds use up oxygen in the water and since water at a higher temp also holds less oxygen it's a double whammy, plus elevated nitrites interferes with the ability for the fish to extract oxygen from the water).

Since your battling nitrites, I would continue with the salt, since it helps reverse the damage nitrites cause.